Restless spirits said to haunt area buildings

Alton's assessing secretary, Kathy Currier, only recently became acquainted with the restless spirits some believe still inhabit the upper levels of Town Hall.

Currier's office is underneath the town hall's old opera stage and auditorium — where the public currently attends selectmen and other meetings — and she often thinks nothing of hearing furniture moving around overhead.

So one afternoon a couple of weeks ago, after asking who was making all the racket upstairs, a co-worker gave an unexpected response — and gave Currier goose bumps as well, she said.

"A coworker said there was no one upstairs, so I went and checked," she said. "Sure enough, there was nobody there."

Her experiences are not isolated. Past town officials and employees also have recounted paranormal experiences at the Alton Town Hall, built in 1896.

In 1991, Tom Mynczwor, then police chief, and Glenn McLean, then town planner, both went public with eerie experiences they had there, including hearing footsteps and moving furniture.

Alton Town Hall is just one example of the many places in New Hampshire that are rumored to be haunted.

In the Lakes Region, a number of ghost stories are associated with 19th century buildings, including The 1875 Inn in Tilton.

Joanna Oliver, the inn and tavern's owner, said she believes the place is haunted by the spirit of a child who died when the previous structure (built in 1805) burned to the ground in 1851.

Pointing to a black-and-white photograph of a solemn-looking girl in a long-sleeved and skirted dress, Oliver said "her first name is Laura, though I don't know her last name."

Oliver, who has owned the Inn for seven years, said she found the photograph in the attic a couple years after taking over.

That's when strange things started happening, Oliver said.

About four years ago, when Oliver was alone in building and tidying up one of the rooms, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, as if someone had walked by, she said.

Laura is believed to have appeared at least four times, each time to different guests, Oliver said.

During one Motorcycle Week, Oliver said a male biker renting one of the rooms turned to find a young girl standing in his room. When he looked away quickly and looked back, she was gone, the man reported, adding that he then opened his door and saw her in the hall for a second or two before the apparition vanished.

As recently as this summer, a female guest had a paranormal experience at the inn, according to Oliver. The woman had just stepped out of the shower to find a young girl standing there. She came down and asked a staff member who the little girl was, but became unsettled when she was told there were no children at the inn, Oliver said.

"When I showed her a picture of Laura, she freaked out, and left shortly after," Oliver said.

Oliver said Laura seems to appear or make her presentence known in other ways during times when the inn is full.

"It seems she doesn't like it when we are really busy," Oliver said. "She doesn't like too many people getting into her space."

According to Thomas D'Agostino's Book, "Haunted New Hampshire," (May 2007 Schiffer Publishing), The Crazy Gringo Restaurant in Laconia is also haunted.

In a phone interview, D'Agostino said he spoke with a former owner of the building who told him the second floor of the building is haunted.

Mike Daly, the restaurant's manager, said he is not sure if the building is haunted.

"But it's an old building, so you never know," Daly said who added he hasn't heard anything out of the ordinary from other staff, either.

Daly said he thinks the building's bottom floor was originally used as store space. The structure was built by George Weeks in the late 1800s.

Daly said in the 1950s and 1960s the building, located on Lakeside Avenue in Weirs Beach housed Charlie's Diner, a well-known local eatery.

Several enterprising restaurateurs tried their luck in the space throughout the 70s but in 1981, a Mexican Restaurant, Nothin' Fancy was established and became a Weirs Beach destination until it closed in early part of the current decade.

D'Agostino said the nearby Winnipesaukee Marketplace, once known the Lakeside House hotel, is also haunted, reportedly by a guest that hung himself in one of the rooms.

The Lakeside House was built in 1880 by George Weeks. It was run as s hotel for decades under several different owners. It became the Winnipesaukee Marketplace in 1986.

Another allegedly haunted Lakes Region place featured in D'Agostino's book is Kimball Castle in Gilford, which sits atop Locke's hill on Belknap Point, overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee.

The castle was built by railroad magnate Benjamin Ames Kimball between 1897 and 1899.

Kimball was president of the Concord and Montreal Railroad and was politically influential in his time. He kept the castle as his summer retreat and lived in Concord during the winter months.

Kimball died in Gilford at the age of 86 in 1920 but the estate remained in the family until 1960 when Charlotte Kimball, Benjamin's daughter-in-law and last heir, died.

Kimball had married his wife, Myra Tilton, in 1861, and their only son, Henry A. Kimball, born in 1864, died a year before his father, in 1919.

According to D'Agostino, witnesses, including a former groundskeeper, claim that during times when the castle has no electricity, lights have been seen going on and the sound of a machine can be heard in what was once the wife's sewing room. Some believe this is the ghost of Myra Kimball, D'Agostino said.

Currently, the castle is privately owned. It is surrounded by the 260 Locke's Hill Nature Preserve.

The owners did not respond to query about the alleged paranormal activity; and, Tom Lavoie, a real estate agent who handles the property for current owners, said he did not want to comment.

Lavoie did caution that any visitors to the property must receive permission. More can be learned about Kimball Castle by visiting the website www.kimballcastle.com.

D'Agostino said he enjoyed doing research in the Granite State for "Haunted New Hampshire."

"We found the hauntings in New Hampshire to be diversified," D'Agostino said, adding that he D'Agostino is poised to release his next two books called "Pirate Ghosts and Phantom Ships" and "Abandoned Villages of New England," and he will be writing about haunted places in Vermont in 2008.

Currier said her recent experiences with the paranormal have made her more of a believer in life after death.